The ticket you see above is from a recent basketball game that we attended to cheer on the Redwings. And, once again, watch one of the girls dance at halftime with the Avions.

We had a lot of fun, despite it being a not-so-spectacular game. First, Benet couldn't buy a bucket. And neither could the other team. I think the score at half was like 12 to 15 or something. Also, it was a make-up game. The game was originally scheduled to be in January, but because of a heavy snow storm on a Friday, they cancelled the game. Because of that, the crowd turnout was pretty paltry. I think there might have been something else going on at the school, so that might explain the not-so-great student turnout.

Also, I couldn't help but think about some optimizations that could occur at the Benet gym. I grew up going to Lincoln-Way High School games and then played on the LWHS Knights Varsity basketball team in the 1990's. We played our games at the East Campus gym. This was before there were 4 (make that 3) Lincoln-Way's. There were two campuses, but one school if that makes sense.

There were some things that my old Coach (Coach Steve Little) did that had a big impact on the 'feel' of the program and experience for both the fans and the players that stand out that are improvements on what Benet has right now. I'm pretty sure that Coach Little - who retired recently - was the influence over how Friday nights operated at LWHS. He was a brilliant basketball mind who paid attention to the details. Let's talk about some of those.

First, is the players sit in folding chairs. They were padded back in the day. But they weren't on the first row of bleachers. You can watch this video (which I've tuned to 3:03) to see the home bench at LWHS right now. It was the same back in the day for me, but red and black instead of blue. Now, sure...that's a nice thing for the players because they're padded. The Benet bench? It is in the first row of bleachers. Check out this video that shows the opposing team's bench. What does that mean? It means that the players sit right in front of fans. But it also means that because Benet dresses like 20 players, the ENTIRE front row of bleachers is taken up and fans can't come/go during the game at all. They players basically block the bleachers. Seems like they either need to NOT pull the bleachers out all the way (like, maybe leave the top row stacked up??) and allow the players to sit on chairs and leave a way-way behind the bench. This would make the fan experience quite a bit better. But it also would improve the program's ability to work during the game. Managers can sit behind and have access to the full bench during the game.

Next, let's talk about the court - the paint layout specifically. I recognize today that gyms need to be multi-purpose. So the lines need to make sense for many uses. But, just about every line is the same size and there's lines going both side-to-side and front-to-back. We arrived early and caught the 3rd and 4th quarter of the Sophomore game. At least two times, players were caught standing out of bounds with the ball because they couldn't easily (without looking) identify the out-of-bounds lines. Check out this video to see the Benet court in the background. Lots of thin lines.

Again, back in my day, Coach Little had a bold paint layout. We had the entire three-point arch painted a solid color (I think?), but we also had massive, thick out of bounds lines. Like three-feet thick. Again, look here to see what LWHS has now. The main court is different, but the baseline/sideline paint is the same that I remember. Big, bands of paint/logos along the baseline make it abundantly clear what is in/out.

Finally, the warm-up program. It seems that teams these days have lost the art of the 'warm-up circus'. The 20 minutes before the game, when the team runs out, dribbling the balls in a line with the band pounding is one of my favorite memories of high school hoops. We had a very particular routing - that we even practiced. What teams do during the warm-up tells me a lot about their coach. Ours was all circus. And I loved it. It was intended to be fun to watch, but also focused on some of the key players (who were actually going to play). The Benet team has - what appears to be - an amazing coach. He's won all over the years in a big way and is highly respected. And his team comes out and does put on a little show, but then it breaks down quickly. They do a 'tap the board' line thing, then form two layup lines. Good so far. But, not enough circus for me. There are things that I love seeing in warm-ups including what the team is wearing (Points to Benet for having their guys come out in pants!). My prefered look is old-school and doesn't happen much any longer: Full top/bottom warm-ups with snapped-up pants and long sleeves. With a shooter shirt on under the warm-up top. Come out, do your circus act, head back into the locker room to shed the warm-ups, but keep the shooter shirts on and the bench guys were those throughout the game.

Earlier this winter, I wrote about the old Lou Malnati's menu and mentioned that as I was waiting around for my pie to finish up, I spied an old Chicago Tribune article posted on the wall that included the original Lou Malnati's Italian Salad Dressing Recipe. The Tribune reporter called it "prized". We were set to host a little pizza party over the weekend, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Here's the article as seen through my mobile phone's camera.
I'm not a wine drinker, so the fact that the recipe called for Burgundy wine didn't strike me as odd. I went shopping at Angelo Caputos in Addison - a really incredible shopping experience - and when I got to the wine section I found Burgundy wine was carried ONLY in those HUGE jugs. And they were dirt cheap. The only issue is that needed just 4 ounces. We ended up with a whole-lotta-wine that Nat won't drink.

I've taken the recipe and modified it a bit by eliminating the percentages (60…

Last week, I was in the Elmhurst Lou Malnati's picking up a pie and noticed that they're NOW selling a bottled version of their salad dressing they've called "Lou Malnati's Sweet Vinaigrette". That's the second consumer packaged good they have in their take-out shops - with the first being Lou Malnati's Tomatoes. They sell it in 16 oz jars.

I didn't catch a price, but I did catch a photo of the ingredient list.
Hmmm...comparing that to the Lou Malnati's salad dressing recipe, it seems that there are a few differences. First, the bottled dressing uses corn oil (listed first) and olive oil (listed way down), while the recipe posted in the Tribune back 40+ years uses olive oil. The bottled dressing also has mustard, "natural flavors" and a few different preservat…

I'm Jake Parrillo. This is my website.

I'm Jake Parrillo and I'm using this space here on the web as a journal of sorts. I'm a 39 year old father of three (2 beautiful girls and one bouncing baby boy).

We live out in Downers Grove - in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. I work at Edelman, am an Xoogler and a former Village Trustee. (Yes! I was elected to office 3X!?!) I'm a pizza fanatic, Disney Dad, gardener, and Lionel O-Gauge fanboy. I (sometimes) post links and videos over at at www.parrillo.info.